Written by: Ronald Prado
All bands have a shelf life. How long they last: an album, two, three, 15, it all fluctuates. Nirvana died when Kurt Cobain swallowed his shotgun. And Puddle of Mudd is still haunted to this day by its lead singer Wes Scantlin’s demons. The end of any band is always hardest on the fans that rallied behind them, and the smaller the discography, the harder this becomes. This was the case for Hospital Bracelet. The Emo Trio disbanded shortly after the release of their first studio album South Loop Summer in May of 2021.
Established in 2019 by lead-singer Eric Christopher, Hospital Bracelet began as a solo project for the musician to work through pain and later found some mainstream acclaim with the release of viral EP Neutrality Acoustic, leading to the band being signed under Counter Intuitive Records. Christopher then recruited their best friend Manae Hammond on drums and fellow Columbia student Arya “A.J.” Woody on bass. Their new lineup released their first single, “Sober Haha JK Unless,” in January of 2020, a haunting ballad to the uncertainty of addiction and sobriety.
However, the band hit their stride in January of 2021, releasing their only studio album South Loop Summer, a seven-song opus with every song better than the last. The album includes a reimagined version of “Happy Birthday” a song from Neutrality Acoustic, changing it from an acoustic ballad reminiscent of the Cranberries, to a pop-punk anthem one might expect from Paramore. The album caught the attention of publications like Spin Magazine, The Chicago Reader, and TonitRule, who wrote articles praising it. Hospital Bracelet was on the fast track to Pop Punk stardom.
Until they weren’t. The downfall of Hospital Bracelet began in a Twitter thread in May of 2021, when drummer Manae Hammond posted a tweet, accusing Christopher of withholding payment from their bandmates, as well as booking a show which they planned to perform without Hammond and Woody without anyone’s knowledge. Hammonds’ accusation led to posts from engineers and other industry professionals, who worked on South Loop Summer, claiming that Christopher had also withheld payment from them. And then, a post from Counter Intuitive Records effectively dropping their contract put an end to the band as a whole. Whereas the controversy surrounding the band’s fate comes into play regarding whether or not Eric Christopher is a bad person. The debate earned its own Reddit thread where you can find everything from fans voicing outrage over the founder’s actions, to fans who blame the whole ordeal on the lead singer’s young age, they were only 19 at the time. Regardless, for fans, the sudden end to such a promising band was and still is nothing short of devastating.
For readers curious about how good some emo band they have never heard of could be, you can still find all of their released music on most streaming platforms: YouTube, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc.
Featured Image Caption: Hospital Bracelet offered a voice or rather a shriek for whatever demons the listener faced
